Summer Games Done Quick Starts Speedrun-O-Rama

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Speedrunning charity event Summer Games Done Quick started on Sunday evening, blazing through almost 200 games over the next week to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. And to show off m@d skillz, obvs. It’s all livestreamed on Twitch. It seems to have a few more PC games than usual, or at least in bigger clumps, including Dark Forces, System Shock, Daggerfall, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Dustforce, Diablo II, and Typing of the Dead. A few of the games are in a special Humble Bundle too.

Check out the schedule to see whe exactly those are all on. I’ve enjoyed seeing how quickly Bethesda’s sprawling open-world RPGs can be finished by powering through the main quest with clever tricks – Fallout 4 is expected to take the longest at 70 minutes, but we’re maybe looking at 32 minutes for Daggerfall. Arcade-y games and platformers are fine displays of skill too, with games like Dustforce looking beautiful in full flow. And hey, sometimes it’s just fun to see a favourite game be entirely broken.

Do also watch out for the Tetris: The Grand Master exhibition on Thursday at around 6:55pm. I am eternally in awe of the ridiculous speeds they play at.

As for the Humble Summer Games Done Quick Bundle, paying at least $15 (£11.29) will get you VVVVVV, Dustforce DX, Guacamelee! Gold Edition, Super Meat Boy, Escape Goat 2, Serious Sam Double D XXL, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, and Freedom Planet. Most come both DRM-free and with Steam keys, though some are only for Steam. All the money goes to Doctors Without Borders.

I’ve heard that game is huge, so if I played it (completionist that I am) it would probably take a few hundred hours.

While I acknowledge the skill it takes to finish these games so fast, it misses the point where I am concerned. I like games where you can run fast and get around fast/take shortcuts, but I’m always looking to explore as much of a game as I can. Unless a game has some seriously tedious parts/quests, I’ll do everything it has to offer, while I’m also playing around with it and loitering.